The Right Words for Niche Marketing Success

Grammar rules.  Growing up, we spend countless hours in the classroom, learning the "proper" way to write.  Learning where to place the commas and paragraph breaks.  Learning that our subjects must agree with our verbs.  Learning how to translate our thoughts and feelings into written words. 

In the end, however, who really remembers all those lessons?  Or even half those lessons?

I don't.  Not only that, but I have a confession to make.  I regularly break many of these grammar rules when I write for my online projects - on purpose.  And I think you should too. [Read more →]

"What's the purpose?"

That's a question I struggle with on a daily basis.  From what I hear others say, I have a feeling I'm not alone on this one.  Although niche marketing is one of those businesses you can start with next to no capital, most people invest a significant amount of time before they recognize any financial reward from their efforts.  And thanks to the problem of getting the search engines to take notice, many of those efforts may seem very futile.

I have been online for almost four years now.  I have learned during those four years that you can quickly become overwhelmed with the amount of work required to run a website.  For you parents out there, it's similar to bringing that firstborn son or daughter home from the hospital.  You realize that being a parent will be hard work, but it's impossible to comprehend just how much work - and how much blood, sweat and tears - will go into raising that little bundle of joy, until it actually happens.  [Read more →]

Here's a common scenario...

You pick a niche.
Good supply.  Good demand.
Too bad it's one you know nothing about!
Oh well - you are going to roll with it anyway.
You set up your site.
Do a little research.  Write a few articles.
SEO and backlinks.
Rinse and repeat.
The money starts to roll in.

Do this right, and eventually you will come to a point where you not only are making a healthy income, but you are also regarded as an "expert" by the audience in your particular niche.  As the expert, they are going to want - no, demand - your opinions.  Unbiased, honest opinions. 

Sure, you have faked it up to this point.  However, now that you have engaged (that's right, all you eBay affiliates - I said ENGAGED) your visitors, they are going to want more from you.  They are going to want the truth.  [Read more →]

Struggling to find niche ideas to promote online? Well, I will get to that (and soon!), but first let me get off track for just half a minute...

"I want to hear Korn!," my youngest son demands from the back seat of the car. This would not be a strange request from your typical Rock-Band-Playing-Guitar-Hero-Wannabe teen. However, this Korn fan is only three years old!

Now, before you go jumping to conclusions about my parenting skills, you must realize that I have spent many hours trying to push the typical upbeat toddler music on this little rocker. The Wiggles, Dan Zanes, Laurie Berkner, even Kidz Bop (yes, I am THAT desperate!).

But all I hear is... "I want KORN!"

OK, so I give up.

I shouldn't be surprised. My youngest son's first three words were mama, dada, and psycho-momo (that's "baby speak" for motorcycle).

He prefers a good stunt bike show to Mickey Mouse any day.

And he likes to cover his body in tattoos - temporary ones (at least for now!).

I could keep going, but I'm sure you get the picture.

[Read more →]

I spend countless hours each week at the keyboard, tapping out content not only for my own niche sites, but also for submission to other sites, in a race to get as many backlinks as possible.  Sound familiar?   If it does, then I have a question for you...

When was the last time you used an outline for writing?

Not to get off topic, but...

Have you ever watched the television series "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?"?  It's a game show where adult contestants are posed questions on a variety of school subjects - math, science, social studies, language -  that typical fifth graders would be expected to know.

Sounds easy, huh?  Fifth grade, that's kids' stuff, after all!  Well, trust me, it's not so easy - the contestants on the show are proof that between fifth grade and the present, we tend to forget a lot of the basics that we learn...

My oldest son happens to be in fifth grade.  Recently, he brought home a three paragraph writing assignment.  He had prepared an outline for the assignment at school, and for his homework, he needed to use the outline to write a rough draft.

Watching him work, it occurred to me that I was taught the same steps when I was in school.  Prepare an outline, write a rough draft, and finally, edit the draft, in order to produce a final copy.

Despite the fact that I spend several hours a day at my computer keyboard, composing blog posts and articles for my niche marketing projects, I could not recall the last time I had actually used an outline to map out what I was going to write.

[Read more →]

Court Tuttle is an internet marketer. His blog used to be in the number three spot on the front page of Google for the highly competitive keyword "internet marketing".

He had a following. He posted daily. Good, informative, original posts.

Then he abruptly stopped. His posting frequency became sporadic. Was it blogger burnout? A busy summer? Personal issues?

August 12, 2008. It all becomes clear, in his post entitled "Content Has Never Been the King", he tells his loyal readers that his sporadic posting was on purpose. That content was not king, after all. How did he know this? Despite his failure to update his blog regularly, he still had his much-coveted Google ranking for the keyword "internet marketing".

His post sparked a heated debate. I can't say with any certainty, but I think it ticked somebody off enough that they reported his site to Google. Poor Court's site did not fare well after the manual review. Poof! Gone from Google, just like that...

September 8, 2008. He posts a retraction. "As It Turns Out, Content Is King." A transparent attempt to regain favor with Google. Only time will tell if it works.

[Read more →]